Just submitted this the other day to the news section:
911 call center advances
Sometime in mid-2007, all 911 calls in Dakota County are expected to be routed through a single, new countywide communications center operated by dispatchers using state-of-the-art technology.
Gone, most likely, will be the six existing centers answering police, fire and medical calls with outdated technology.
Representatives of 11 suburbs, which account for 95 percent of Dakota County's 380,000 residents, announced the agreement to build an $11 million call center in the county.
The new center will use the 800-megahertz digital system, replacing the old VHF analog technology.
"This plan represents better services for all of our citizens, at a lower cost, using today's technology," Dakota County Commissioner Nancy Schouweiler said.
From common events to a major disaster, emergency responders from different cities and agencies will be able to communicate with each other directly under the unified system, officials said. Responders also will be able to talk to regional and statewide users of the same system. Communication from inside buildings also will improve.
Eventually, all of Minnesota's 87 counties may be part of an integrated statewide 800-MHz system, said Russ Sinkler, a county-hired technical consultant with PSC Alliance in Rosemount. The state and several counties already have done so, Sinkler said, while other counties have signaled their intention to do so.
In Dakota County alone, Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland estimated operational-cost savings at $8.5 million in the first five years, compared with what the six existing call centers would have spent.
Morever, many officials consider it cost-prohibitive for their individual cities to undertake the major technology upgrade on their own.
"The goal is not only to save dollars. The goal is also to save lives," said Apple Valley Police Chief Scott Johnson. "This is going to make a difference many years into the future."
Under the new system, dispatchers can set up "talk groups" for conference calls at disaster scenes. Dispatchers will be able to better coordinate and calibrate responses to send "only what's needed'' to the scene, Johnson said.
His Eagan counterpart, Kent Therkelson, said that during disaster drills, "the first thing that typically fails" is speedy and effective multi-jurisdictional communication.
Dakota County officials talked about the cooperation, foresight and mutual trust that led to what they billed as a historic consolidation agreement. While all of that may be true, federal and state grants — including money earmarked for better homeland security — helped speed things along.
Federal and state grants Dakota County received will pay for roughly half of the $11 million in costs for constructing the new sub-system.
Dakota County will cover the rest of the capital costs, plus subsidize operating costs. Cities will be billed based on population and usage. They also will have to buy compatible handheld and mobile radios.
In contrast, Ramsey County and the city of St. Paul have been stalled for years in talks to combine their emergency communication centers. Just last month, Ramsey County reached an agreement with Maplewood to merge their dispatch operations.
The urgency for making improvements accelerated after the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, when various New York emergency services workers had difficulty communicating with each other.
The current six centers are operated by the Dakota County Sheriff's Department in Hastings and by the cities of West St. Paul, Apple Valley, Lakeville, Burnsville and Eagan.
The cities involved in the agreement are Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Farmington, Inver Grove Heights, Hastings, Lakeville, Mendota Heights, Rosemount, South St. Paul and West St. Paul.
Sinkler, the county-hired consultant, said the expectation is that none of the 69 full-time equivalent employees in the six centers will lose their jobs.
While the new center is projected to employ only 52 full-time equivalent employees, Lakeville City Administrator Steven C. Mielke said the goal is to reduce staff through attrition, not layoffs.
The center will be run by a separate governing authority that includes representatives of the 11 partner suburbs.
A building site has yet to be selected, but talk centers on 80 acres of county-owned land in geographically central Empire Township, south of Rosemount.
The new system will require construction of nine transmission towers. Two state-operated towers already exist in Dakota County and will improve the new system's performance and capacity, officials said.
The agreement must be approved by the Metropolitan Radio Board, which governs construction and operation of the 800-MHz public-safety radio system.
County officials are working on five other areas for greater cooperation. Those are joint purchasing of employee health insurance, combined operations and purchasing of information technology, a countywide law enforcement center, joint nonfelony prosecution services and sharing of public safety equipment.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/11760120.htm
So It looks as if you will be ok until '07..
